The Saturday Night Movies That Became a Doctoral Thesis

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On Saturday nights, a VHS tape would click into place and a young girl would settle in with her family, waiting for the story to begin.

For Dr Nisha Ramlutchman, those moments were never just about entertainment. The colour, music and drama drew her in, but something else stayed with her long after the credits rolled.

“I grew up watching Hindi cinema, excitedly waiting for my dad to load the latest film,” she recalls.

Years later, that early fascination has come full circle in her doctoral research in Media and Cultural Studies, ‘The Recasting of Female Gender Roles: An Analysis of the Representation of Female Protagonists in Bollywood Cinema (National Film Awards 2010-2018)’, supervised by Dr Anusha Sewchurran. What began as a childhood love has become a careful interrogation of how women are represented on screen.

Ramlutchman’s study describes Hindi cinema as more than storytelling. It is, in her words, an “ideological apparatus” - where films quietly teach audiences what is considered normal, desirable or acceptable - shaping ideas about love, family, identity and gender, often without viewers realising it.

With Bollywood’s vast global reach, these messages travel far beyond India, finding audiences in places like South Africa and across the diaspora. Focusing on award-winning productions that carry particular cultural weight, her research asked: If these films are seen as the best of what the industry offers, what do they reveal about women?

Her findings show that while female characters increasingly occupy central roles in these films, that visibility does not necessarily translate into power.

“Any substantial or real empowerment remains largely absent. Women may lead the narrative, but their lives on screen often remain tightly bound to familiar expectations: the dutiful wife, the obedient daughter, the self-sacrificing mother. Even portrayals of independence or sexual freedom are frequently undercut - sometimes punished - by the narrative itself,” Ramlutchman said.

Across the films she analysed, three patterns stood out: the absence of stable professional identity, the lack of meaningful recognition and limited sexual agency. In other words, women may be seen, but their narrative presence is often not fully realised. Their ambitions are often sidelined, their work undervalued and their choices constrained.

And yet, the picture is not entirely flat. Ramlutchman points to characters like Rani in Queen (2013), who embarks on a solo honeymoon that suggests personal transformation. But even here, she notes, the change remains individual rather than structural. Similarly, in Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015), the characters of Tanu and Datto disrupt expectations in different ways - one resisting the confines of marriage, the other pursuing education and sport. Still, both are ultimately denied a sense of narrative fulfilment. Their stories begin to stretch the frame, but not quite break it.

This tension between visibility and limitation is at the heart of her work. It speaks to a broader issue in media and cultural studies: representation is not just about who appears on screen, but how meaning is constructed through what is shown and what is left out. Drawing on feminist concepts such as symbolic annihilation and gender performativity, her study highlights how cinema can reinforce, rather than dismantle, deeply embedded ideas about gender.

For Ramlutchman, this is not just an academic concern. With over 1 000 films produced annually in India, and hundreds within the Hindi film industry alone, Bollywood is a powerful cultural force. Its stories circulate globally, shaping perceptions of femininity, sexuality, marriage and identity.

“It does not merely depict constructed realities. It can also influence how people think about society.”

Careful not to strip cinema of its magic, she recognises that film should always be appreciated for its escapism, fantasy and creative storytelling, despite her critical lens.

Ramlutchman considers her accolade as a collective achievement, shaped by the steady support of family, friends and her supervisor. She credits her mother’s resilience as a quiet lesson in endurance and her siblings for keeping her grounded. Her nephews, with their playful check-ins - “Are you finished with your ‘book’ yet?” - brought moments of levity that kept her going.

She reserves her most heartfelt tribute for her father. Though he is no longer here, his role in shaping her imagination on those Saturday nights in front of the television was, in hindsight, more than family time.

“They kickstarted my academic curiosity. I didn’t realise it then, but what began as shared moments of joy became the foundation of my scholarly path.”

Ramlutchman’s work calls simply for better stories, where women protagonists are visible, fully human, complex, agentic and recognised in their own right. Her call speaks to global conversations about gender, representation and the power of media to shape the world we imagine and, more importantly, the one we live in.

Words: Rakshika Sibran

Photograph: Shutterstock